Wakeman's Tite gets conviction, sentence vacated

TOLEDO -- A Wakeman man, who had several run ins with the law, had his conviction and sentence vacated in one case after the 6th District Court of Appeals found the state violated a plea agreement by refiling charges it agreed to dismiss.

Robert Tite was charged on Dec. 1, 2011, with carrying a concealed weapon, using weapons while intoxicated, drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, possession of shotgun shell and hunting without wearing hunter orange.

Tite entered a no contest plea, through a plea deal, to carrying a concealed weapon and using weapons while intoxicated, according to the appeals court's judgment entry.

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In exchange for his plea, the state agreed to dismiss the four remaining charges. His plea agreement was accepted and he was sentenced to seven months in prison.

He appealed his sentence to the appeals court and the state refiled the remaining charges arguing Tite breached the agreement by appealing his sentence, according to the judgment.

The motion to dismiss was denied by the Norwalk Municipal Court and a jury found him guilty of each of the four remaining charges.

"The record not does support the state's assertion that the plea agreement required Tite to forgo his right to appeal,'" Appellate Judge Stephen Yarbrough wrote. "The state failed to discuss any additional requirement that Tite was to forgo his right to appeal. Further, the fact that the plea agreement would be revoked if Tite exercised his right to appeal was never mentioned."

When the state refiled the charges, it violated the terms of the plea agreement, Yarbrough wrote.

Tite's history with the law includes a police chase that also involved his son, Anthony Tite, who was found dead after the incident. Tite also was arrested after deputies found him walking drunk along Chenango Road carrying two loaded firearms in December 2011. In 2009, Robert Tite pleaded guilty to driving a heavy piece of machinery while intoxicated. He also was charged, then later acquitted, of driving a bulldozer through a neighbor's yard. A month later, he broke his ankle while riding a horse in Wakeman, He was riding his horse because he had lost his driving privileges, according to police.